Orphanage Camp

Покажите мне! (Pa-ka-zheet mne!) --That means "Show me!" That's what I heard a lot of this week. Everytime I took a photo of one of the children (or the adults for that matter) they wanted to see how they looked and if I should take the photo again. It was a long week, but it was eventful.

A group of about 10 people from Jayne's church helped to do a Christian Camp (kinda like VBS) for some children at an orphanage in town. This is not a full-system orphanage, but a little more like a large, foster care center.

The children can remain here from 6 weeks to 6 months while the government tried to get the child back into the home. If that doesn't work, then the child is placed in a regular orphanage. Some of the children were taken from their families for domestic issues, while others were put in the home by the families. The facility was well-kept and the children seemed to have very good care.

We had children ages 3-20, so it was a challenging but very exciting experience. We spent time with them each morning as a large group—we did songs and other activities with them.Then we divided into 5 small groups by age, where they did a Bible lesson and a discussion.
Then we did games as a group outside. This was always a big hit, but was especially exciting on the last day when we did games with water balloons (I think those are the universal "have a great time" item).

We finished the day with a craft, one for the older kids and a different craft for the little guys.

Because my language skills are still limited, I self-designated myself as the photographer--I had lots of fun! And as I said earlier, it was a great connection to have with the students, since I could not talk with them a whole lot. It was a joy to show them them photos. Here are some of my favorites.

The biggest highlight of my week was meeting Dima. He does not live at the orphanage, but he came with his grandmother to help. We tried to keep each other busy when the others were planning things that I couldn’t understand and he didn’t care about. He was very fascinated that I could speak English but not very much Russian. Everyday he asked me, “Do you speak English?” I said yes. “Fluently?” I told him of course. He would then look very impressed and say, “Klas-na” (which is like saying “very good” or “cool”). Yep, somebody thinks I’m cool.

До свидания! (Da cvee-dan-ya)

Это - английский лагерь!

Someone asked me a few days ago how I was going to determine the success of my English camp. The only thing that came to mind was this—if one student will say a word with /th/ in it with the correct pronunciation and without any prompting, I will have succeeded at something. I heard five different students pronounce their /th/ sound correctly during this second week of camp, so someone learned something!!

Over the past two weeks, I have been working with Jayne and Patti to do an English camp for the church where we attend here in Kremenchuk. Most of the students live near the church or attend the church where the camp was held. We had a morning session for the younger students (ages 6-12) and an afternoon session for the teenagers (ages 13-18).

In the morning session, we had from 20-35 students each day. Most of the students were under the age of 10, so we were challenged with trying to keep them all busy. We did lots of hands-on lessons and activities with them. Our daily schedule included learning new vocabulary with motions, singing, a Bible story, grammar, outside games, and small group activities.

In the afternoon session, we had from 8-12 students each day. Most of them were connected with the church in some way, but they were a very diverse group. We focused more on conversational English with this group, so they worked in small groups frequently and discussed things with each other. They also had new vocabulary each day, singing, a Bible lesson, grammar, games and small group interaction. They really opened up by the second week and had a lot of fun with each other.

It was sad to have our last day of camp on Friday. It’s amazing how much you can get to know someone in two weeks. Even though I was the teacher, I learned so much over the last two weeks—about children, about Ukrainians, about teaching and about English. I still have almost a month left of my trip here in Ukraine, so I can’t wait to see what else I get to learn before I leave.

So...What's New?

What has Emily been up to that she has not been posting any new updates or photos? Well, the main issue has been that I’ve had limited internet access, so it’s been hard to log on and say hello to everyone. But the other reason is that the cultural immersion is in full swing and the most intense part of my trip is upon me! Months and months of plans for our summer camp are about to be executed and it’s both exciting and overwhelming…what have I forgotten? We’ll know soon enough.

But that’s in the future, so more on the camp later. What else has been going on?

I attended the graduation at the Kremenchuk Regional Bible College:
Classes have ended for this year and we successfully graduated a group of about 40 students. These students were either in a pastoral/biblical studies program or a Christian education program. Most of them are already serving in their own churches back home and they have completed their Bible school requirements in a modular format. I only met a few of them, but I heard wonderful things about them and their desires to serve the Lord. Many were from Ukraine, but some were from countries close to Ukraine. The ceremony was held on Saturday, June 27 and it was quite a celebration. After the lengthy ceremony, we had lunch together and they had a program after lunch as well—it was done by the students and it was very entertaining.

I attended an English Bible study:
It still surprises me what people in other countries are willing to do to learn English. It makes me more thankful that I had so many years to learn it as my native language! Greg and Patti (also SEND missionaries) host a weekly Bible study in their home during the school year and I was able to attend the last one of the year before their summer break. It was well attended and they actively participated in reading the Bible and discussing it together. It was fun to see such diversity in the language proficiency and also spiritual maturity—many of those in attendance are not believers and will not come to church, but they are reading and discussing the Bible each week. After the discussion, we had a fellowship time where they could converse with each other and us.

I attended a team dinner: a send-off, birthday and an end-of-the-year celebration package deal.
One family with SEND that also works here in Kremenchuk has just returned to the States for home service. Last Friday, we had a combined birthday/send off party for them. Jayne hosted them in her apartment along with two other SEND couples. It was nice to spend a little time with them before they left and to see the whole team together.

I moved from the apartment of my host to my own place in the Bible College:
For my first two weeks here, I lived with Jayne, my mentor for the summer. However, she only has one bedroom in her apartment and she was nice enough to allow me to use that for the past few weeks. So now that I have my bearings a little better in our little city, I’m on my own! The college has just finished building a new part to their school, including an apartment to be used by visiting professors and other guests of the college…like me! I’m one of the first people to stay here, so it’s been very exciting. I have a bedroom and little kitchen, so now I’ll be cooking for myself sometimes and giving Jayne back her peace and quiet (I’m so noisy).

I led the placement interviews for our camp next week:
Our English language camp will begin on Monday, and in preparation for that we held a placement interview for the students two days this week. We did not have too many people come, which is not too surprising (who likes to be tested?) but that just means that we will need to do more on the first day of camp. We have about 40 children signed up, so that’s really exciting. The interviews that we did have were fun and went really well. Most of the students are at a beginner level, so I’ll probably need to adjust my lesson plans a little accordingly, but we’ll see. The kids that came were really enjoyable to be with, so I think that the next two weeks are going to be a lot of fun!

I went to the grocery store by myself:
And I managed to get all the things I needed! Yes, this is a big deal. Not only are things packaged differently here than they are in the States (I actually like a few things better here), but some things are not out on shelves to pick out yourself. Many times, everything is kept behind the counter or locked in shelves and you must ask for what you want. Yes, you must use RUSSIAN to ask for what you want. So my vocabulary is growing out of necessity, and so far things are going pretty well. But I’ve now been to a few places where I’ve been able to get everything that I needed. It is a huge accomplishment for me, so I just need to continue to do better.

I went to a Fourth of July picnic:

It was wonderful to have hambergers on the grill, fun at the beach and a chance to be outside of the city. It was not a far drive, but Jayne, Patti and I went with a Ukrainian couple they know from church. It was a very warm day, and we had a few scattered showers that didn't last very long and kinda felt good, since it was so hot. It was not quite like the Hartman event at Uncle Greg and Aunt Bethany's, but it was still fun.

I took my first taxi ride by myself:

I needed to get home at night, so I took a cab. I have been in a few taxies since I've been here, but always with someone else. I managed to tell the driver the correct address and get to the right place, too. It was a wonderful feeling to make it home.

I attended the wedding of a Ukrainian couple:
It took place after the morning church service on Sunday morning, since the whole church family was invited. It was a beautiful ceremony, with a message from the pastor, music and lots of prayer. After the ceremony, the couple followed a tradition to take pictures with their wedding party around the city. After a couple of hours, everyone met back at the church for the reception, which included lunch and a program put on by the friends of the bride and groom. It was very entertaining and the food was really wonderful.

Well, I think that’s about it. I’ll check in again soon. Thanks for joining me on my adventure.